Arista DCS-7060DX5-64-F — 32×800G QSFP-DD Dual-Interface Spine Switch with Forward Airflow
The
Arista DCS-7060DX5-64-F is a 1RU, 32-port 800G spine switch built on the 7060X5 platform with
unique dual-interface QSFP-DD/OSFP support. Delivering
25.6 Tbps of non-blocking switching capacity with
825 ns cut-through latency and a
114 MB shared packet buffer, it is purpose-built for the spine layer of high-density 400G/800G leaf-spine fabrics and next-generation AI/ML cluster interconnect and storage networks. The DX5-64 delivers 2× the per-port bandwidth of the 7060DX4-32-F in the same 1RU form factor, with each port supporting both QSFP-DD and OSFP optics via the same physical connector interface. The “
-F” suffix denotes
front-to-rear (forward) airflow, the standard configuration for traditional hot-aisle/cold-aisle data center designs where cool air is supplied from the front of the rack. The
-64 designation reflects the maximum port configurations supported — up to 64 × 400GbE ports via breakout, or 128 × 200GbE, or higher port counts at lower speeds through breakout cable support.
Key Features at a Glance
- 32 × 800GbE Dual-Interface ports supporting both QSFP-DD and OSFP optics — single port operates at 800G, 400G, 200G, or 100G speeds
- 25.6 Tbps non-blocking switching capacity — full wire speed across all 32 ports simultaneously, or 51.2 Tbps in full-duplex mode
- 825 ns cut-through latency for consistent, low-jitter performance across all active ports
- 114 MB shared packet buffer — approximately 2× deeper than the 7060DX4-32-F (64 MB) for AI, storage, and bursty east-west workloads at 800G scale
- Dual-interface QSFP-DD/OSFP support — a single port can use either QSFP-DD or OSFP optics, enabling mixed-optics deployments and gradual ecosystem transitions
- Advanced switching architecture optimized for 800G performance and full EOS feature support
- Front-to-rear airflow (“-F”) for standard hot-aisle/cold-aisle data center deployments
- Redundant, hot-swappable power supplies and hot-swappable fan trays
- Full L2/L3 feature set: VXLAN, EVPN, MLAG, 128-way ECMP, BGP, and advanced routing
- Dynamic Load Balancing and Cluster Load Balancing for AI/ML all-reduce and storage traffic patterns
- Rich telemetry: LANZ, sFlow, AEM, and streaming telemetry
- Runs Arista EOS® with open APIs, Python/Bash scripting, and CloudVision® integration
Dual-Interface Design: Maximum Optics Flexibility
The
DCS-7060DX5-64-F is unique in the Arista 7060X5 lineup: its ports support
both QSFP-DD and OSFP optics via the same physical interface. This dual-interface design enables:
- Mixed-Optics Deployments: Ports can use QSFP-DD optics on some ports and OSFP optics on others — a single spine can support both optics standards simultaneously without separate line cards or modules. This flexibility is particularly valuable for organizations transitioning from one optics ecosystem to another or integrating acquisitions with different optics standards.
- Gradual Ecosystem Transitions: Organizations can upgrade from QSFP-DD to OSFP (or vice versa) at their own pace, one port at a time, without replacing the entire spine. This staged approach minimizes disruption and aligns with fabric upgrade windows.
- Cost Flexibility: Organizations can choose the optics ecosystem that best matches their supplier relationships and long-term optics roadmap — no switching hardware penalty.
- Linear Pluggable Optics (LPO) Compatibility: When deploying OSFP optics, the DX5-64 supports LPO modules for field-upgradeable transceiver configurations, protecting optics investments across fabric lifecycle transitions.
25.6 Tbps Non-Blocking Architecture
The
DCS-7060DX5-64-F delivers
25.6 Tbps of full-duplex, non-blocking switching capacity across all 32 dual-interface ports — or
51.2 Tbps in full-duplex bidirectional mode. Every port operates simultaneously at 800G line rate without oversubscription, providing the consistent, predictable performance that 800G leaf-spine and AI/ML fabric designs require. A single DCS-7060DX5-64-F spine can service up to 32 × 800G leaf switches at full line rate, or up to 64 × 400G leaf connections via breakout — all without fabric head-of-line blocking.
825 ns Cut-Through Latency
Operating in cut-through switching mode, the
7060DX5-64-F delivers
825 nanoseconds of port-to-port latency with consistent, low-jitter performance across all 32 ports. This sub-microsecond performance is achieved at 800G speeds. The 825 ns latency represents excellent sub-microsecond performance for AI/ML training fabrics, distributed computing, GPU cluster interconnect, and storage networking.
Port Density and Multi-Speed Flexibility
The 7060DX5-64 provides
32 × dual-interface ports, each supporting multiple speeds and optics types:
- 800GbE — native full-rate for 800G spine-to-spine or spine-to-leaf connections on either QSFP-DD or OSFP optics
- 400GbE — dual 400G operation within a single port for aggregation or backward-compatible leaf connectivity
- 200GbE — quad 200G operation within a single port for distributed deployments
- 100GbE — 8× 100G operation within a single port for connectivity to existing infrastructure via breakout cables
- Breakout Support: QSFP-DD to 4×QSFP28 breakout for 100G connectivity, or dual-interface breakout to match both optics standards
This per-port and per-optics flexibility allows a single 7060DX5-64 spine to simultaneously service native 800G leaf switches, connect to existing 400G leaf infrastructure via breakout, and support both QSFP-DD and OSFP ecosystems — covering an entire multi-generation migration without hardware changes.
Optics, Cables, and Interoperability
The
DCS-7060DX5-64-F supports a comprehensive ecosystem of both QSFP-DD and OSFP optics:
- 800G QSFP-DD: 800GBASE-DR8, SR8, and other 800G QSFP-DD standards for short-reach and long-reach connections on the same spine where some ports use QSFP-DD
- 800G OSFP: 800GBASE-DR8, SR8, and other 800G OSFP standards on the same spine where other ports use OSFP, with support for Linear Pluggable Optics (LPO) modules
- Breakout Support: QSFP-DD to 4×QSFP28 breakout DAC and AOC cables for 100G connectivity to existing infrastructure
- Industry-standard optics: Compatible with IEEE 802.3 standards for 800GbE, 400GbE, 200GbE, and 100GbE across both optics types
114 MB Deep Shared Buffer: Built for 800G AI, Storage, and Synchronized Traffic
The
114 MB shared packet buffer of the DX5-64 is engineered for the most demanding modern workloads. Unlike fixed-per-port buffer architectures, the shared pool dynamically allocates buffer capacity to the ports and queues that need it most. Three workload categories benefit directly from this buffer depth:
- 800G AI/ML training fabrics: Distributed training jobs at 800G scale with collective operations (AllReduce, AllGather) generate synchronized, simultaneous bursts from hundreds or thousands of GPUs toward the same destination. The 114 MB buffer absorbs these all-reduce events at the spine layer, maintaining GPU utilization and keeping training time predictable.
- High-speed NVMe-oF and storage fabrics: Storage reads and writes at 800G generate large, bursty transfers. The DX5-64’s deep shared buffer prevents head-of-line blocking and packet drops that force storage retransmissions and inflate I/O latency.
- East-west incast in 800G leaf-spine fabrics: When multiple leaf switches simultaneously send traffic to the same destination through a spine at 800G rates, the 114 MB shared pool provides buffer headroom to absorb these events without drops.
Advanced Load Balancing and Traffic Engineering
The
DCS-7060DX5-64-F supports advanced Arista EOS traffic engineering capabilities:
- Dynamic Load Balancing (DLB): Real-time flow rebalancing for AI/ML all-reduce and storage traffic patterns
- Cluster Load Balancing (CLB): Advanced hashing and traffic steering for GPU cluster traffic
- AI Analyzer: Hardware-based monitoring of ECMP utilization at 100 microsecond granularity
Spine-Optimized Fabric Support: VXLAN, EVPN, and 128-Way ECMP
The
7060DX5-64-F delivers the full Arista EOS spine feature set for modern data center and AI/ML fabric architectures:
- VXLAN: Spine-layer VXLAN routing for scalable overlay fabrics with large VNI counts across multi-tenant environments
- EVPN: BGP-based control plane for distributed MAC/IP learning, multi-tenancy, and seamless MAC mobility across the fabric
- Up to 128-way ECMP: Maximum path diversity across the spine layer, distributing east-west load evenly across all leaf uplinks
- BGP and IS-IS: Full-featured underlay routing for IP fabric, routed-spine, and eBGP-based CLOS topologies
- MLAG (Multi-Chassis Link Aggregation): Up to 64-way MLAG for redundant dual-homed leaf switch connectivity
RoCEv2 and Lossless Ethernet
The
DX5-64 provides full support for lossless Ethernet fabrics required by GPU cluster interconnect:
- RoCEv2 (RDMA over Converged Ethernet): GPU-Direct RDMA support with Per-Priority Flow Control (PFC) for zero-loss fabric operation
- Priority Flow Control (PFC): Per-priority pause mechanism to prevent packet loss during buffer exhaustion
- Data Center Bridging (DCB/DCBX): 802.1Qaz Explicit Congestion Notification (ECN) support for advanced traffic engineering
- Advanced Congestion Control: DCQCN for RoCEv2 flow control optimization
Telemetry, Monitoring, and Real-Time Insight
The
DCS-7060DX5-64-F includes Arista’s full telemetry stack for spine-layer observability at 800G scale:
- LANZ (Latency Analyzer): Per-port, real-time queue depth visibility and microburst detection for diagnosing congestion events at the 800G spine
- sFlow: Continuous traffic sampling for east-west flow analysis and capacity planning
- AEM (Advanced Event Management): Rule-based, programmable alerting for link events, queue thresholds, and routing protocol state changes
- Streaming Telemetry: High-frequency counter and state export to gRPC collectors, Grafana, Prometheus, and third-party NMS tools
EOS Automation and Extensibility
Running on
Arista EOS®, the
DCS-7060DX5-64-F is built for automation-first network operations:
- Native on-box Python and Bash scripting via the Linux shell for event-driven automation
- JSON-RPC eAPI for programmatic configuration — integrates with Ansible, Terraform, Salt, and Nornir
- CloudVision® for centralized configuration management, zero-touch provisioning, network-wide change control, and topology visualization
- OpenConfig and gNMI/gRPC for model-driven management and high-frequency streaming state export
- Zero-Touch Provisioning (ZTP) for fully automated day-0 configuration
Front-to-Rear Airflow and Data Center Fit
The “
-F” airflow configuration provides
front-to-rear (forward) cooling, where cool air enters from the non-port side of the switch and exhausts from the port side. This is the standard configuration for traditional hot-aisle/cold-aisle data center deployments, racks where the majority of equipment already uses front-to-rear airflow, and new data center builds following ASHRAE thermal guidelines. The DCS-7060DX5-64 is available exclusively in front-to-rear (“-F”) airflow. The -F designation is mandatory for this model; rear-to-front (“-R”) configuration is not available. Organizations requiring rear-to-front cooling should evaluate rear-cooled variants or consult with BrightStar Systems for alternative configurations.
Power Efficiency
The
DCS-7060DX5-64-F delivers approximately
17 W per active 800G port at typical utilization, with redundant power supplies. The 548W typical power draw for a 32-port 800G dual-interface spine switch demonstrates excellent power efficiency relative to the bandwidth delivered. Dual redundant, hot-swappable power supplies ensure continuous operation through PSU failures without scheduled maintenance windows.
Reliability and High Availability
The
DCS-7060DX5-64-F is engineered for 24/7/365 operation in mission-critical fabrics:
- Stateful Fault Repair (SFR): Automatic detection and healing of transient packet forwarding errors without traffic interruption
- Stateful Fault Containment (SFC): Isolation of faulty hardware components to prevent cascading failures
- Smart System Upgrade (SSU): Graceful hitless OS upgrades without traffic disruption or connection loss
- Accelerated Software Update (ASU): Fast in-place OS updates with minimal downtime
Deployment Scenarios and Industry Applications
- Mixed-Optics 800G AI/ML Fabrics: Organizations managing diverse optics ecosystems (QSFP-DD and OSFP leaf switches) — the DX5-64 supports both optics standards simultaneously on the same spine, enabling mixed-infrastructure deployments without separate line cards. Provides 114 MB buffer, DLB/CLB load balancing, and LANZ telemetry for GPU cluster all-reduce traffic at 800G scale.
- Staged QSFP-DD to OSFP Migrations: Organizations planning a gradual transition from QSFP-DD to OSFP (or vice versa) — the DX5-64 enables one-port-at-a-time migrations without spine replacement. Eliminates the cost and complexity of staged infrastructure upgrades where optics standards must change in lockstep.
- M&A and Multi-Vendor Integrations: Organizations integrating acquired data centers with different optics standards — the DX5-64 spine can operate in a heterogeneous optics environment, connecting both QSFP-DD and OSFP leaf infrastructure without separate spine hardware for each standard.
- Ultra-High-Throughput NVMe-oF Storage Fabrics: 25.6 Tbps non-blocking capacity with 114 MB buffer depth for storage networks where burst tolerance at the spine layer directly determines storage I/O consistency and tail latency.
- Hyperscale and Cloud Data Centers: 25.6 Tbps non-blocking spine capacity with 128-way ECMP and 800G per-port bandwidth for full-bisection-bandwidth cloud fabric designs, particularly valuable where supplier or fabric evolution requires mixed-optics capability.
- High-Performance Computing Clusters: HPC workloads generating synchronized incast patterns benefit from 114 MB buffer depth, DLB/CLB load balancing, and native 800G per-port bandwidth with flexible optics support for consistent job completion times.
Lifecycle, Reliability, and Future-Proofing
The
7060DX5-64-F is built for long operational lifecycles with high MTBF ratings, field-replaceable fans and power supplies, and the consistent Arista EOS release cadence that network teams depend on for long-term supportability. The unique dual-interface design protects fabric infrastructure investments across optics ecosystem transitions — organizations can upgrade optics standards without replacing spine hardware, a material advantage in multi-year fabric evolution cycles.
Similar Arista 7060 Models to Consider
- Arista DCS-7060DX5-64E-F – 32×800G QSFP-DD variant with identical performance specs but QSFP-DD optics only. Use when QSFP-DD is the optics standard.
- Arista DCS-7060PX5-64E-F – 32×800G OSFP variant with identical performance specs and LPO support but OSFP optics only. Use when OSFP is the optics standard or LPO is required.
- Arista DCS-7060DX4-32-F – 32×400G QSFP-DD spine with 64 MB buffer and 700 ns latency. The right choice when 400G is sufficient.
Related 7060X Resources
Arista 7060 Series Switches: Architecture, Models, and Deployment Guide
The 800G Dual-Interface Spine Built for Mixed-Optics Fabrics and Ecosystem Flexibility
The
Arista DCS-7060DX5-64-F brings together 25.6 Tbps of non-blocking capacity, 32 native 800G dual-interface ports supporting both QSFP-DD and OSFP optics, 114 MB of shared packet buffer, and the full depth of Arista EOS automation into a 1RU spine switch built for organizations managing diverse or transitioning optics ecosystems. Its unique dual-interface design eliminates the need to replace spine hardware during optics standard migrations, making it the ideal choice for M&A scenarios, multi-vendor environments, or long-term fabric evolution strategies. Its front-to-rear airflow makes it the natural fit for standard hot-aisle/cold-aisle data center deployments. Available from BrightStar Systems fully tested, reset to factory defaults, and backed by a 1-year in-house warranty.
